It makes sense: If you have to pay out of pocket for your fertility treatments, you’re going to want to get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. According to ScienceDaily, “Physicians often feel pressure from patients who have financial incentive to maximize the per-cycle success by requesting the transfer of more embryos and willing to take the risk of multiple pregnancies.” The authors of the study note that when there are lower multiple birth rates, there are fewer costly fetal complications, so when insurance companies cover the I.V.F. treatment it actually saves money down the road. Randi Hutter Epstein
made this identical point on DoubleX
last year (and on
Slate
,
Darshak
Sanghavi
argued for IVF coverage back in 2009
) and the research bears them out: Comprehensive insurance coverage for infertile women is the most cost-effective option around.